Chapter 26

Chapter. 26

After about thirty minutes of terror, the developer finally bought the Goblin Dung I had originally put up for a thousand Points.

This was a 'declaration of surrender.'

"Behave yourself."

I stopped the terror and put the box back up.

1.  

"Warehouse No. 89 ought to do."

That was the warehouse number where various pieces of equipment that fell short of Legendary or Unique were stored.

This was about the upper limit of the items I was willing to 'sell' to the developer.

'Still, he was insolent, so I should charge him double the usual price.'

***

"It was a satisfying trade."

Of course, it was only satisfying for me.

As I looked at the mountain of Points piled up before me, the corners of my mouth rose.

Naturally, I had not thrown a fit just to vent my stress.

I needed an astronomical amount of Points to set the board I had planned into motion.

'Two birds with one stone.'

The surest and fastest source of money was, as expected, picking this fellow's wallet clean.

It might make me look a little petty, but that could not be helped.

You needed money before you could save the world or do anything else.

The interesting part was this...The developer did not seem to know the detailed specs of the items I sold.

If an item was actually useless but had a grand-sounding name, he paid more for it.

He had rejected the truly good spear, 'Fisherman's Harpoon,' without even considering it.

Yet he gladly paid a high price for flashy trash like the 'One-Handed Shield of the Deepening Sunset,' which I would not use even if someone handed it to me for free.

'Is the reason he covets Nameless not because of its performance, but simply because the name sounds impressive?'

Judging from this, the developer was definitely ignorant about games.

Or else he was the sort who obsessed over style more than performance.

"...No, wait."

Was he really ignorant about games?

Which was more likely: that the developer knew nothing about games, or that he knew them inside and out?

'Unless there is a separate Auction House manager...' What if he was pretending to be a flashy fool?

What if he had already seen through Nameless's true value and identity perfectly, and was only playing along like an idiot to lower my guard?

Truly, in many ways...he was an inscrutable bastard.

'Well, it does not matter either way. If he really is a gullible fool, then I should be grateful, and if he is acting, then all I have to do is strip away even that mask and take everything.'

"La-la-la."

I should order pizza and chicken.

The crime of daring to torment me by letting delicious smells drift around outside the house.

And, conversely, the crime of making me miserable because I could only eat pungent food on 'truly special occasions'!

I would punish him by eating!

"All delivery food is doomed."

I did feel a little sorry for Cheol-su next door, who was probably out there suffering after being called in.

Though, to be honest, I had also asked them not to release him from the mobilization because I wanted some peace and quiet.

'Actually, I do not feel sorry at all. Hardship in youth is what turns into strength later. I am doing this for your own good, so go suffer a little, Cheol-su.'

The required deadline had been seven days.

The time I had bought was a full fifteen days!

There were still three whole days left until the meeting, so I could rest for at least one day!

'I need to recuperate too, so I should rest properly.'

Should I get tteokbokki too?

***

Kang Hyo-jun was flustered when he saw the 'order slip.'

"...Chicken, pizza, tteokbokki?"

'Has the Alchemist gone mad?'

"So he likes things like this too?"

So he had not been some lunatic obsessed with calorie sticks?

He was actually capable of eating 'normal' food!

"He does not even have any Points. He already spent all the Mana Stone money long ago."

Kang Hyo-jun rubbed between his brows.

The sale proceeds from the Mana Stones he had first sold and asked them to 'keep'?

He had used all of that and still come up short because of the cost of 'Six Fingers'!

Even so, because the Market had declared that the Alchemist was to be treated as a VIP, Kang Hyo-jun had continued to supply the necessary items, even raiding the Korean branch's emergency funds.

'Those earrings of Min Ji-hee's... do you have any idea how much they cost? Ugh.'

When the one and only VIP said he needed something, what could Kang Hyo-jun, a mere person in charge, possibly do?

So the Korean branch was now completely strapped for cash.

And now, an order for luxury food.

"Ghhh..."

In the end, Kang Hyo-jun decided to pay out of his own pocket.

'I am billing all of this. Damn it.'

Once the next budget execution period came around, he would be reimbursed for everything he had spent, so he only had to endure it for now.

'For the time being... I suppose I will have to eat those wretched calorie sticks.'

His stomach hurt.

Shortly after he began personally handling the Alchemist, Kang Hyo-jun started suffering from chronic gastritis.

Was it simply because the Alchemist was difficult to deal with?

That was part of it, but it was not the core issue.

At the moment, thanks to the 'Market's' consideration, no one knew that the Alchemist and Kang Hyo-jun were connected in any way...

but a trail left too long was bound to be found.

If a rumor like, 'Apparently you can meet the Alchemist through Kang Hyo-jun,' ever started going around...?

'The world's big spenders would come pressing down on the Korean branch...'

"Huu..."

Just imagining it made Kang Hyo-jun's heart pound and his stomach ache.

Staggering down into the basement, Kang Hyo-jun began typing in the ingredients he needed to order from the Market.

'Let us see.'

His gaze sharpened.

Kang Hyo-jun was a gourmet.

He could not just order any ingredients!

"The chicken should be a No. 11 bird. Fresh meat slaughtered the same day, not frozen. Free-range raised. The price... does not matter."

Tap. Tap.

"The milk should not be low-fat. It needs at least 4% milk fat. For the breading, mix wet breadcrumbs and dry breadcrumbs in a ratio of 3 to 7. For the tteokbokki, the rice cakes should be a 7:3 ratio of wheat cakes to rice cakes, and the fish cakes should have at least 90% fish content."

If any of his subordinates had been around, they would have fainted on the spot.

The head of the Black Market's Korean branch was discussing the ratio of tteokbokki cakes while wearing an expression that solemn.

But Kang Hyo-jun was serious.

'If I am going to recreate the menu that gentleman ordered perfectly, then the ingredients must be perfect from the start. Besides, any dish that passes through my hands must allow not even the slightest error.'

"The cheese..."

After that long, long order was finally complete,

[The price?]

"It is at the Alchemist's request, Market. For now, I will pay with my own funds..."

[It has been paid.]

"...Paid?"

That was strange.

Kang Hyo-jun's eyes widened.

If he were putting it on credit under administrator authority, the normal message would be 'Confirmed.'

For it to say it had been paid meant the payment had actually gone through...and that meant there were Points in the Alchemist's account.

'No way?'

A bolt of realization flashed through Kang Hyo-jun's head.

'Did he get more Points?'

This was what every Black Market employee was curious about!

Points were periodically charged into the Alchemist's account.

That had to be what had just happened!

Hurriedly gathering up the premium ingredients spilling out in a rush from the portal, Kang Hyo-jun dashed over to the terminal and sat down.

'Codename Alchemist. Transaction history. Sales history...'

[None]

"Huh?"

...There was nothing!

"No, no. That makes no sense. He sold Mana Stones just a few days ago!"

Had Kang Hyo-jun himself not personally handled that transaction?

There was no way he could be remembering wrong.

The chance that he was mistaken? None at all!

And yet the Alchemist's transaction history showed 'None.'

'...!'

Kang Hyo-jun reached a chilling conclusion.

'It was deleted.'

Only now did he understand.

The reason the Alchemist had been able to earn vast amounts of Points without leaving any transaction records behind.

Someone was wiping the transaction records clean.

Who?

'Only one person could possibly do this.'

The master of the Black Market.

The Market.

He was clearly the one deleting the records himself...!

Click.

Kang Hyo-jun hurriedly shut the transaction history window.

His heart pounded so hard it felt as if it would smash through his ribs and leap out.

'...I did not see anything.'

And he made a vow.

Forget it. Forget everything...

'...But still.'

Then how many Points had been charged into the account? He wanted to know. It terrified him, and yet he wanted to know so badly it drove him mad...!

Was human curiosity truly strong enough to overcome even fear?

Kang Hyo-jun narrowed his eyes and casually, as though by accident, tapped the Alchemist's account.

[No permission to view.]

'...Ha. Hahaha.'

Thud.

Kang Hyo-jun closed the terminal.

His fingertips trembled.

His heart did not merely pound; the pit of his stomach tingled painfully.

Any branch manager naturally had the authority to view an account.

The amount of Points in an account was the bare minimum filter for distinguishing whether a customer was a passing drifter or a true heavyweight.

And yet this was an account even a manager could not view.

That meant the Market was managing it personally.

'I do not know anything. Yes. Let us just say I know nothing at all. I will forget everything.'

He knew it was dangerous to dig any deeper.

Kang Hyo-jun forcibly stopped thinking and staggered toward the kitchen.

"Chicken, pizza, tteokbokki."

With trembling hands, Kang Hyo-jun tied an apron around himself. The man who had been trembling in fear and sweating cold sweat just moments before had vanished without a trace. All that remained was the gaze of a craftsman fixed upon his ingredients.

With those shaking hands, he accurately weighed the flour.

"The dough temperature is 4 degrees. That suppresses gluten formation."

Fundamentally, the Black Market's 'delivery menu' was handmade by administrators.

That was why the mighty head of the Black Market's Korean branch was personally frying chicken and kneading dough while drenched in sweat.

"At the highest quality... I will cook it perfectly."

And besides... this was the Alchemist's order.

He should prepare it with even greater care than usual.

***

"Delicious."

This was not my mother's cooking... no, it tasted like a dish imbued with such care that I could feel the hand of some first-rate chef behind it.

"Black Market, you are keeping me alive."

To think delivery food could carry this kind of class.

Money truly was king.

Lastly, I finished the meal by casually drinking down a bottle of the 'Potion' I had bought before.

"Hm, let us see."

My mouth was pleased, but my mind could not rest.

I had said I would rest, but that did not mean I intended to sprawl on the bed and idle away the day.

In a crisis where the country might be destroyed at any moment, I could not exactly remove my brain from the equation completely.

After I killed the Frost Dragon, the bosses the Tower began spewing out as though delivering a final ultimatum were Scathach and Resonar. Those two.

They were raid boss Monsters that existed in Lost Honor.

At the same time, it was a lineup aimed with perfect precision at Han Seol-ah, a Frost Type Hunter.

Let us say we kill Resonar.

The next boss monster that appears is obviously going to be another monster with a counter, is it not?

So I drew up the full list.

And as a result, I learned one thing.

'...That is surprising.'

There were exactly four monsters capable of decisively countering Han Seol-ah.

Scathach, the boss that had plunged the nation into despair far worse than the Frost Dragon ever did, was, surprisingly enough, only fourth among those four in terms of strength.

Resonar was third.

'...The next ones out will probably be second and first, in that order. That is the only logical conclusion.'

Up to Resonar, there was still a strategy, though only barely.

But the two above that could not be killed with our current specs even if we died and came back to life.

Judge the situation calmly.

Han Seol-ah was already at her peak right now.

Min Ji-hee was not combat personnel.

Jin Cheon-jin was dangerous against humans, perhaps, but weak against large monsters.

If I did not grow stronger, destruction was certain.

'The difficulty is absurdly high.'

Of course it is. Reality is always live combat.

CRACKLE—

Right then.

The television in Cheol-su's apartment next door burst out with a voice mixed with static.

And that was not all. The television in the apartment across from mine, and even the one next to that, all turned on at the same time.

"...?"

[Ah, ah. Can you hear me, Apostle?]

No, when I looked out the window, the windows all throughout the neighborhood were flashing and pouring out light in unison.

Every television in the entire apartment complex had awakened at once.

"What on earth"

[Please do not be alarmed. This is being transmitted only over the Incheon-exclusive line.]

"Ah."

It was Min Ji-hee's voice. Once I understood the situation, I let out a hollow laugh.

'Impressive.'

Anyone who was not an idiot would realize that with technology like this, she could have singled out my television alone and turned it on.

Instead, whether it was a switched-off TV or a radio, she had deliberately broadened the range, leaving me a wide enough margin to hide within.

'It is a declaration that she will not cross the line, and an admission of retreat. She really is a clever woman.'

[The Hunter Watch for you, Apostle, has been prepared. I have left it wrapped in the conference room, so please retrieve it whenever you wish. Afterward... I will contact you through the Hunter Watch.]

"Come to think of it, she did not have any way to contact me."

Even while she was clearly desperate to pinpoint my location at once, she maintained a courteous exterior, saying only that she had prepared it for me and I could take it whenever it suited me.

She handled things properly.

"Perhaps I should go for a walk."

It was close by, and I was full, so the timing was perfect.

"Wow. A walk. The world really has changed."

To think the day would come when I could go outside freely again!

***

"Oh ho."

On the table in the conference room, a Hunter Watch lay neatly inside a small box.

It had a white, luxurious design.

But it was obvious they had taken care not to make it look excessive.

"This design would suit Han Seol-ah well."

Click.

A white leather watch strap that looked expensive at a glance wrapped snugly around my wrist.

"...Hah."

Was this the sensation rich people felt when they wore an expensive watch?

Beep.

After a short alarm sound, a hologram rose from the Hunter Watch.

[User 'Apostle,' it is a pleasure to meet you for the first time.]

"Impressive."

It felt as though I had become some special being out of an old film.

But did holograms normally appear like this...?

Was it not supposed to just beep, sound an alarm, and make me check the watch screen?

This was also the first time I had ever seen a feature that recognized the user and greeted them first.

[Please do not be alarmed. This watch is a special-agent model and has been registered with a function that projects a hologram visible only to its wearer.]

'Quick-witted.'

The flexibility to read its master's mood in advance and behave accordingly.

It definitely seemed useful.

[To restrict the use of this watch so that no user other than the agent may use it, one-time personal registration is required.]

Immediately afterward, a hologram appeared requesting fingerprint registration.

'This is a little...'

It made me uncomfortable.

I was an Awakening Failure who did not exist in the Republic of Korea Hunter DB.

Personal registration, and fingerprint registration on top of that?

At a glance, it looked dangerous.

"I do not want to register."

And what if someone hacked it?

It was not as though I could install security tools of my own design onto a watch the way I could on my computer.

At that, the watch reacted instantly.

[Assessment: The user is reluctant to register biometric information for security reasons.]

[Response: The registration procedure is immediately omitted, and the system is switching to 'Voice Authentication' mode.]

"Hm? Is that really acceptable?"

A Hunter Watch was like a modern-day resident registration card.

People used it for everything tied to their identity, from accounts to contact information, so it was even more important than an ID card.

You could almost think of it as another version of yourself, one that lived and moved within the system rather than in flesh and blood.

And yet it was going to skip something as important as personal registration?

Pop.

The hologram vanished, and a soft light came on across the watch face.

A much calmer, more orderly AI voice than before spoke by my ear.

[Of course. This watch is a model equipped with the twelfth-generation A.I, 'Snow White.' Solving your difficulties is my highest priority.]

"Oh ho."

[The authority granted to you is 'highest grade.' It is sufficient to let you use anything you desire.]

[And as a separate special function, it is possible to create an 'identity.' Would you like to confirm that now?]

"Nice."

Now that was excellent.

So they had taken care of it in exactly this way.

What did I, someone who absolutely had to hide his identity, need most?

A legal cover identity.

'I had wondered whether I would need to request that separately, but there is actually a function for it built in here.'

All I had wanted was a new watch, and yet they had delivered something beyond that.

To prepare exactly what I needed without being told.

Min Ji-hee's competence exceeded even my imagination.

As expected of the brain supporting the Republic of Korea.

I was just about to answer that I wanted to 'check it now'...when I paused.

"I should go home first and continue there."

This was outside, after all.

Wearing a satisfied smile, I lightly tapped the watch screen.

"This is good."

It felt as though I had gained one dependable secretary.

"I should get back quickly and test its performance properly."

My steps felt noticeably lighter on the way home.

***

"You have worked hard."

"···."

Min Ji-hee had collapsed.

She had pushed herself too hard to finish it as quickly as possible.

She had made it in the most classic style possible because it could not be allowed to stand out too much.

Even so, the leather used in it was of the highest grade.

The finishing materials and components had all been the best as well.

Because they had needed supplies in a hurry, she had no choice but to strip parts from the watch belonging to the A-rank informant, 'Silent Assassin' Jang Ho-hyeon.

That was because Jang Ho-hyeon's watch had been a top-tier custom model, assembled from components he had personally sourced while traveling through places like the Black Market.

Instead, under the pretext that simple was best, Jang Ho-hyeon had been issued the most ordinary watch possible.

She had said she wanted to gift him the pleasure of starting again from rock bottom.

Jang Ho-hyeon had cried, but because his sobbing was quiet, no one noticed.

Min Ji-hee rubbed her face dry.

Because time had been so short, as she tuned the final-stage 'Snow White,' she had focused on only three core functions.

First, a top-grade firewall that not even state institutions could break through.

Second, highest-grade authority, so that anything done through the watch would be granted a free pass.

And the final third.

The function Apostle would need most, yet could not bring himself to say aloud and request.

'Identity laundering.'

He was a person who lived in the shadows.

To step out into the world, he would need a perfect mask to cover him.

'...He will realize soon enough just how much he can do with that watch.'

Whew.

'I hope he understands as well... that this is the highest level of trust we can offer.'

Min Ji-hee rolled her stiff neck and looked out the window.

The night sky over Incheon was unusually bright.

"Please let it be to your liking."